“Great People and Interesting Work ”

Current Employee - Software Development Engineer In Test in Seattle, WA

Current Employee - Software Development Engineer In Test in Seattle, WA

I have been working at thePlatform full-time

Recommends

Positive Outlook

No opinion of CEO

Recommends

Positive Outlook

No opinion of CEO

Pros

Benefits of a large company (Comcast), but it feels like a small company. The work/life balance is great. For the most part you can go home at the end of the day and not think about work until you come in the next morning.

Cons

There is some hr bureaucracy that we have to deal with because of Comcast. The web portal to track vacation days only works in Internet Explorer.

I really like the people I work with: they're smart, they're rational, and they're motivated. When you're trying to decide what to do or how to do it it's a discussion based on merit, not on seniority or politics or random executive "gut feelings". I've made some great friends here and it's cool to work with people you'd want to hang out with outside of the office. The people would probably be enough to keep me here, but I also think it's a fun space to be working in: there's so much to figure out in online video and how the TV industry is evolving and to be involved on the cutting edge of it, as people are experimenting and trying new things, keeps you fresh. And we've got a lot of blue chip customers so it's fun to brag about which web sites and events you're behind. Lastly, the underlying services we've built are just really strong. At some software-as-a-service companies it's a constant panic to keep everything up and running, long nights, getting woken up at 3 in the morning to figure out why something is jammed in the gears: that happens everywhere, of course, but here things feel more solid (knock on wood)

Cons

When you tell people where you work, don't say you work for Comcast, because everyone has an opinion about Comcast. But we've got our own culture. The only time you notice the ownership is when you're stuck watching a backlog of mandatory training videos for an hour or you're battling with their SAP portal to put in vacation time. It's also a really lean organization, both in terms of using lean/agile methodologies and the # of people. You'll be asked to do a lot, and you'll have to be good at prioritizing what you work on and to have the strength to push back and set boundaries with your manager when there just aren't enough hours in the day. The other part of being a smallish company is that there aren't that many management positions to start with, so if you want to climb, you're not going to make it to the peak unless a manager decides to move on. Instead, you advance by taking on bigger projects and more leadership on those projects, and that's how you get your salary bump.

Large company benefits, small company feel. As a subsidiary of Comcast benefits include subsidized cable and stock options. The teams are small and Agile. Management is accessible, including the CEO. Improvements to the product influenced from the entire organization. Product is of the best in the industry.

Cons

Small company means the "corporate ladder" is short for some roles. Unless you move to to another part of the company it can be hard to advance. Management roles are filled by people who have been here for a long time and show no signs of leaving.

Advice to Management

Find more ways for employees achieve or advance within the company. It's to easy for people stagnate and not improve. Find ways to cross pollinate the teams in ways that break up the knowledge silos.